The ORIGINAL gathering place for a merry band of Three Percenters. (As denounced by Bill Clinton on CNN!)

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Great Read from Kit Perez- " What to Do if You Have Nothing to Hide"

Kit and others have pushed me to include more net security in what we do here at Sipsey Street. It is a process but every little bit helps. Kit is former Air Force, (but we don't hold grudges) with a BA in Counterintelligence and is currently finishing a thesis for a Master's in Criminal Intel. She has more than a few things to say about keeping your digital house clean. I guarantee a visit to Order of the White Rose will not be misspent time.

An excerpt: "... if you’re of the absolute belief that you have nothing to hide, that everything you do is just fine with the government, then you have a moral obligation to use that position to help the rest. You of all people should be providing cover, using the means available to help those who are being persecuted and targeted."﻿

11 comments:

Hi Sgt. Matt,What it all boils down to is how "Big" is the "Magnifying Glass" that the .gov has to dig into your past?? So someone managed to "Pull off a couple of 'Fast Ones' and not get caught??" Or is this info just sitting there in some file somewhere waiting to get "Uncovered??" So the "Statute of Limitations" has expired!! (That is a Joke!!) If they want to sling S#!t they will!! Since the day you were born (even before) you have been tracked!! Get used to it.....OUTLAW!!!,...Good old George Strait ,,,,,,,,"Some times I feel like Jesse James, Tryin' to make a name! Think about it....in his time..."NOBODY"...had a "SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!!!!!!"Got Gunz.........OUTLAW!!!!!,III%,skybill-outPS Sgt. Matt... I used to say,"Got Gunz....OUTLAW!!!??????," ...but ya' see....there is no question about it anymore....we're all "OUTLAWS" now..... 'Told Mike this some time ago.

I agree we all must make a line in the sand. Her salient point was that security is not just for you but for everyone down the line. I remember as a teenager of about 14 (circa 1993) , being in my dad's office when he received a fax from a local militia leader in Gadsden. Before, the Old Man had operated in the fledgling militia movement trying to maintain operational security by being as careful as possible with information. I believe the group he had run had a mission to remain hidden and clandestine until needed. What that fax did was alert every federal and local LEO that was monitoring the very public militia leader that the Old Man was reasonably quite agitated for being outed, but soon came to the conclusion that if he was out he might as well do the best with it. I remember him saying quite often that "if they are going to make me into an outlaw, I might as well be the best outlaw I can be." After that he became quite vocal which led to his elevated status among the national groups.

I'm not going to claim I have anything to hide, because that's not a very good way to hide anything I really want hidden.

But as someone who doesn't claim to have anything to hide, I was at first puzzled by what exactly it was that was being suggested here...it could a bit for me to realize that using privacy services of various kinds even when you are doing things that are entirely innocuous to make it harder for the Feds to target people for simply using such services was the idea.

I hate to be a downer, but the argument implied here seems critically flawed to me. When people say that they aren't concerned about privacy because "they have nothing to hide", I assume that also means that they don't think anyone else should have privacy either because they don't like other people hiding things. That's kinda the point of saying it, as Snowden's comparison to not caring about free speech because you have nothing to say implies. In other words, you aren't saying you have nothing to say so much as that the government is already saying it for you, it is a way of siding with those now in power.

As I referenced before, the only other reason people might say they have nothing to hide is because they actually have plenty to hide but claiming they don't is part of their strategy for keeping it hidden. I bet those people are already using privacy services quite a bit, even while claiming they have nothing to hide.

My argument would be more along the lines of "if you really have nothing to hide from the government, then why does your government have so much to hide from everyone?" If everyone who claims to want there to be no secrets could be persuaded that the only way to be taken seriously in that claim (whether or not they believe it themselves) were to protest against government secrets, that could accomplish something. And if people "have nothing to hide" because they identify their own interests so closely with those of the government, then they can be made aware that the government must be hiding things on their behalf, and either take responsibility for complicity in what the government hides or become aware that perhaps the government is hiding things that would upset them.

Well seeing that you brought up the "...nothing to hide" subject, i suggest that camera's be put into the White House and every Congress critter's office...And to the average "nothing to hide" Joe - take down your blinds and curtains and leave the bathroom door open when doing your business if privacy is of no great concern to you

Look, whatever you have in your pants is very similar to what 50% of the people on this planet have in their pants. They've seen theirs, they know pretty much what yours looks like. So what's the big deal? Take off your pants and go about your daily business!

But wait. Those are called "your private parts" for a reason. They're PRIVATE! And they're not the only private thing you have:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,[a] against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." -- Fourth Amendment to The Constitution of The United States

Now have a look at Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Griswold V. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and of course the infamous Roe v. Wade.

In sort, SCOTUS has ruled that a "right to privacy" exists and that is among the rights mentioned by Jefferson in The Declaration of Independence.

You might also want to read up on the concept of "reasonable expectation of privacy".

One of the things that I hear quite frequently from various groups and even leadership is that "we aren't doing anything illegal so we have no need to hide it." They're referring to their training, operations, etc. They'll post the coordinates of their FTX, frequency lists, etc. all the while claiming that because they don't have anything to hide, they shouldn't HAVE to hide.

Their argument has a dual undercurrent--both sides of which are equally flawed.

1) Their claim of nothing to hide literally screws anyone who deals with them because when you refuse to use digital security protocols or even basic tradecraft, that decision doesn't affect just you. It affects everyone who knows you. If five people are in a group and four of them use security but the fifth doesn't, well, they're all exposed. As you mentioned, their claim of not needing privacy equals "we don't think you should have privacy either," and in making that decision for others they're basically infringing on the privacy rights of others. In short, someone refusing to use security is literally denying others who deal with them the right to decide for themselves if THEY want privacy.

2) In many cases that I've seen, the nothing to hide argument ends up being a smokescreen for "I am too uninformed to understand HOW to implement these procedures and I am too lazy to learn." There's no excuse for that. Not when the lives of your fellow partisans will depend on your ability to help protect their information and movements.

I appreciate that perspective. I tend to assume that people who are in the liberty movement but say they don't need to hide anything belong to the ranks of those who actually are doing some things they want hidden and just not making that generally known to everyone that asks.

To them, I'll say, "training to use secure communications is important too (and it's a good way to explain why you are using privacy services even when you 'have nothing to hide';)."

Of course, when I really want to keep something hidden I'm leery of transmitting it through the custody of someone who's only using a privacy service for practice...then again, sometimes I do stuff just for practice myself.

"Progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress."

I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave. -- H.L. Mencken

On the efficacy of passive resistance in the face of the collectivist beast. . .

Had the Japanese got as far as India, Gandhi's theories of "passive resistance" would have floated down the Ganges River with his bayoneted, beheaded carcass. -- Mike Vanderboegh.

In the future . . .

When the histories are written, “National Rifle Association” will be cross-referenced with “Judenrat.” -- Mike Vanderboegh to Sebastian at "Snowflakes in Hell"

"Smash the bloody mirror."

If you find yourself through the looking glass, where the verities of the world you knew and loved no longer apply, there is only one thing to do. Knock the Red Queen on her ass, turn around, and smash the bloody mirror. -- Mike Vanderboegh

From Kurt Hoffman over at Armed and Safe.

"I believe that being despised by the despicable is as good as being admired by the admirable."

From long experience myself, I can only say, "You betcha."

"Only cowards dare cringe."

The fears of man are many. He fears the shadow of death and the closed doors of the future. He is afraid for his friends and for his sons and of the specter of tomorrow. All his life's journey he walks in the lonely corridors of his controlled fears, if he is a man. For only fools will strut, and only cowards dare cringe. -- James Warner Bellah, "Spanish Man's Grave" in Reveille, Curtis Publishing, 1947.

"We fight an enemy that never sleeps."

"As our enemies work bit by bit to deconstruct, we must work bit by bit to REconstruct. Be mindful where we should be. Set goals. We fight an enemy that never sleeps. We must learn to sleep less." -- Mike H. at What McAuliffe Said

"The Fate of Unborn Millions. . ."

"The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed, and they consigned to a State of Wretchedness from which no human efforts will probably deliver them. The fate of unborn Millions will now depend, under God, on the Courage and Conduct of this army-Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; that is all we can expect-We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die." -- George Washington to his troops before the Battle of Long Island.

"We will not go gently . . ."

This is no small thing, to restore a republic after it has fallen into corruption. I have studied history for years and I cannot recall it ever happening. It may be that our task is impossible. Yet, if we do not try then how will we know it can't be done? And if we do not try, it most certainly won't be done. The Founders' Republic, and the larger war for western civilization, will be lost.

But I tell you this: We will not go gently into that bloody collectivist good night. Indeed, we will make with our defiance such a sound as ALL history from that day forward will be forced to note, even if they despise us in the writing of it.

And when we are gone, the scattered, free survivors hiding in the ruins of our once-great republic will sing of our deeds in forbidden songs, tending the flickering flame of individual liberty until it bursts forth again, as it must, generations later. We will live forever, like the Spartans at Thermopylae, in sacred memory.

-- Mike Vanderboegh, The Lessons of Mumbai:Death Cults, the "Socialism of Imbeciles" and Refusing to Submit, 1 December 2008

"A common language of resistance . . ."

"Colonial rebellions throughout the modern world have been acts of shared political imagination. Unless unhappy people develop the capacity to trust other unhappy people, protest remains a local affair easily silenced by traditional authority. Usually, however, a moment arrives when large numbers of men and women realize for the first time that they enjoy the support of strangers, ordinary people much like themselves who happen to live in distant places and whom under normal circumstances they would never meet. It is an intoxicating discovery. A common language of resistance suddenly opens to those who are most vulnerable to painful retribution the possibility of creating a new community. As the conviction of solidarity grows, parochial issues and aspirations merge imperceptibly with a compelling national agenda which only a short time before may have been the dream of only a few. For many Americans colonists this moment occurred late in the spring of 1774." -- T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence, Oxford University Press, 2004, p.1.